


Broken Arm I

by allikatt



Series: Proof That Peter Has Zero Self-Preservation Instincts [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Broken Bones, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, the angst came out of nowhere
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-15
Updated: 2019-06-14
Packaged: 2020-05-12 03:41:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19220842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allikatt/pseuds/allikatt
Summary: “That’s nice, but it still doesn’t explain how you broke your arm.”“So, there are two distinct possibilities as to when I might have broken it.”Tony was taken aback. “What do you mean two possibilities?”





	1. Broken Arm I

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, everyone! I know that I said that these were going to be one shots, but I have a second chapter for this because I didn't want to delete 10 pages of writing. It takes place the day before the first chapter, and goes more in depth about how exactly Peter broke his arm. You don't have to read it to understand the story, however.
> 
> I included soccer not only because the FIFA Women's World Cup is going on, but also because I played soccer for 10 years and love the game.
> 
> Also, this is based on the first time I broke my arm. That story will be in the notes at the end of the chapter, if you care to know.

Peter woke up with a groan. His right arm was throbbing and still a little swollen from the day before. He thought sleeping would have brought the pain level down and heal it, but apparently that was too much to ask his super healing factor for. Then again, he didn’t really sleep much last night, as whenever he moved it wrong, he was drawn up from the shallows of his dozing to full alertness. He figures that he obtained two to three hours of restless slumber in total. 

He heaved himself off of his bed, careful not to jostle his hurt arm too much. He grabbed his phone off of his desk to check the time, and saw a text from Happy. Peter realized that he had less than half an hour to get ready. He hurried to the bathroom and brushed his teeth before going back into his room to change. He threw on the first science pun shirt and jeans he could find off the floor before rummaging in his drawers for a lightweight hoodie to wear. He did not want to draw any attention to his arm.

Besides, his hair would probably draw enough attention. It was more unruly than usual. He did not have time to try and style it; instead he had put some water on top in hopes of getting it to flatten out. 

Going to the kitchen to grab himself a bowl of cereal, Peter was grateful that he listened to May and packed his bags before today. There was no way he would have been able to pack and be ready by the time Happy arrived. Eating his cereal, Peter texted Ned about the picnic and the videos he sent Peter yesterday. As he was slurping the leftover milk in his bowl, Happy texted to let him know he was outside. Peter texted Ned to tell him he had to go and would text him later.

Grabbing his duffle and backpack, Peter left the apartment and entered the car. “Hi Happy! How are you today?”

“I’m good.”

“That’s great! So yesterday, May and I went to her department picnic--” Happy put up the screen between them, effectively ending the conversation. Peter sighed and pulled out his phone. Might as well check Twitter.

“Hey, kid, we’re here,” Happy’s voice woke him up. He didn’t even realize that he had fallen asleep. “How late did you stay up last night? Jeez.”

“Not too late! Thanks for the ride, Happy!” Peter slipped his backpack on and Happy handed him his duffle. “I hope you have a great day!” Peter waved to him as he left the garage. 

Peter didn’t run into anyone on his way to his room, which surprised him, since he usually saw at least one of the Avengers lounging around the common area. Once he reached his room, he threw his things onto his bed and went into his ensuite bathroom. Looking in the mirror, Peter was relieved that his hair looked semi-presentable instead of the rat nest it was earlier. Leaving the bathroom, he asked FRIDAY where Mr. Stark was. He then raced down to the labs.

Peter quietly entered the lab, having asked FRIDAY in the elevator to not announce when he was coming down. Tony was deeply engrossed with a holographic blueprint that hovered over his lab table. Once Peter got next to him, he casually said “Hi Mr. Stark! Whatcha working on?”

Tony jumped a few feet into the air, and his hand accidently waved through the hologram, dismissing it. “Jeez kid! You know I have heart problems.”

Meanwhile, Peter couldn’t stop laughing. “You should have seen how high you jumped, Mr. Stark! Actually, you can see! FRIDAY, play the footage of me scaring Mr. Stark.” The space where the blueprint was now had the video playing, with audio. “Mr. Stark, I’m pretty sure you jumped at least two and a half feet into the air.”

“Oh, just wait until I get you back! Also, because you scared me, we will not be blowing anything up in the lab today.”

“Yeah, but half the time you say that and we end up blowing something up anyways.”

“Let me rephrase: there will be no intentional blowing things up, capisce?”

“Capisce.”

“Now, follow me over here.” Tony led him to a whiteboard with potential web formulates on it. “I know that we were talking about how we could increase the tensile strength of your webs, but I think that this new formula can increase the amount of webs you can make from one canister by 10-15%. Do you want to test it out?”

“Of course I do!”

“Great! Do you have your web shooters on you?”

“No, I was running a little late this morning so I put them in my backpack with my suit. I can go grab them though.”

“Don’t bother. I have an extra set lying somewhere around here.” Tony started rummaging through some boxes underneath a lab table. “Ah, here we go. I made an extra set in case one of yours breaks.”

“Thanks, Mr. Stark.” Peter grabbed them from his mentor and put them on while he was distracted. Pulling up the sleeve of his hoodie, Peter saw his swollen arm and covered it back up before Tony could see. Putting the web shooters themselves didn’t hurt, so he figured that testing with them wouldn’t hurt either. 

Peter was wrong. Tony had Peter aim at a target that measured how many feet of webbing was released. Since they already had a baseline for how much a canister of his current web solution held, they decided to test the new web fluid until Peter used 25% of the canister, and compare results. In less than half an hour, Peter’s arm was burning and pulsating in time with his heart. Peter tried to keep the grimace off of his face, but Tony eventually noticed.

“Pete, stop for a minute.”

He lowered his arms and was thankful that the burning in his arm immediately lessened. “What’s wrong, Mr. Stark?”

“Are you sure you’re okay? Your being more forceful with your left web shooter than your right, and your grimacing when you shoot from your right.”

“I’m fine, Mr. Stark. I think I slept on my arm wrong”

“Are you sure?” Tony looked like he was ready to call Peter out on his bluff before changing his mind. “We can stop if you’d like and save it for tomorrow. Instead we can work on tensile strength.”

“We’re almost done. I’ll be fine.”

Peter had never felt so grateful as when Tony told him that he could stop shooting. His arm was in agony, with a sharp stabbing adding to the burning and throbbing. He took his web shooters off as quickly as possible, and hugged his arm to his chest to try and minimize the pain. 

“Underoos, come over to my lab table so we can look at the results.”

Peter reluctantly released his right arm, and picked up his web shooters with his left. While walking over, his spidey sense went off, and he automatically reached out to grab whatever was being thrown at him. Unfortunately for him, he had to catch the object with his right hand, seeing as he was carrying his web shooters in the other.

Peter could not hide his pained gasp as he caught the object, which he now saw was an apple. Clutching his arm to his chest once again, he breathed through the pain.

Tony rushed over. “Peter, I’m sorry for throwing the apple at you. I wanted to get back at you from earlier and figured that it would hit you in the chest or something. Based on that gasp though, I would say that your arm is definitely hurt.” He sighed. “How about we take a look.”

Tony guided them to an empty lab table and sat Peter down in a seat before sitting next to him. Slowly, carefully, Peter moved his arm from his chest to stretch out on the table. “Since you’re wearing a hoodie, I’m going to have to move the sleeve up so I can see your arm. If it hurts you, I’m sorry.” Tony gently pushed the sleeve up to Peter’s elbow, then carefully picked up his arm to look at it from all sides before setting it gently back onto the table. “Your arm is definitely swollen, and probably broken. Let’s go up to Helen to find out for sure.”

Tony escorted Peter from the lab to the MedBay, neither of them talking the entire time. Once they entered the MedBay, Tony sat Peter on a chair in the first exam room while he found Dr. Cho. Tony came back a few minutes later with the doctor in tow. “Hello, Peter. My name is Dr. Helen Cho, but you can call me either Helen or Dr. Cho. Tony tells me that you injured your arm.”

Peter responded in an almost completely monotone voice. “Yeah, I hurt it yesterday.”

“What were you doing yesterday when you injured your arm?”

Peter did not want to tell Dr. Cho that he tripped on the sidewalk, so he went with a half-truth. “I was side-tackled yesterday and I landed on my right arm.”

“Hmm… that could cause it.” Picking up Peter’s arm, she started to gently prod it, earning a hissed breath from the patient. “There’s little-to-no bruising on the arm, but that could be due to his healing factor. His arm is definitely swollen though, which is indicative of a break. I won’t know for sure until it’s x-rayed.” Putting Peter’s arm lightly back onto his lap, she asks, “How does your arm feel, pain wise?”

“Um, it throbs with my heartbeat, and sends a sharp, shooting pain towards my shoulder whenever I move it too much or too fast.”

Tony rubs a hand over his face, muttering “He’s going to be the death of me.” Louder, he says, “Kid, why didn’t you say something. I wouldn’t’ve made you test the new web fluid if I knew that you were in this much pain.”

Peter remains silent, staring at the wall in front of him. Dr. Cho stands and beckons Peter to follow her out the door. “Let’s get some x-rays of your arm so that we know for sure if it is broken or not. When you come back, Tony will give you some pain pills that can keep up with your metabolism.”

Peter came back into the room a few minutes later and sat out at the edge of the bed. Tony wordlessly handed him a paper cup and two pills. Peter took them with a grateful smile, then the two of them sat in uncomfortable silence until Dr. Cho entered a few minutes later. She pulled up a hologram showing Peter’s x-rays.

“As you can clearly see, Peter has fractured his ulna almost completely through about two inches from his wrist. It appears to be a stress fracture. He will definitely need to wear a cast for at least two weeks, and I recommend wearing a sling for a few days.”

Peter was staring intensely at his x-rays. “Take a picture, Underoos. It’ll last longer. Or, if you want, I can have these printed out and you can hang them on the wall. What do you think?”

Peter scoffed. “Here,” he reached into his back pocket, “take a few pictures for me. I want to send them to Ned.”

“You can take your own photos. You still have one functioning arm.”

“But I hold my phone with my right hand,” Peter whined. “The pictures might be blurry if I take them with my left hand.

“Fine, I’ll take the pictures for you.”

“Thanks, Mr. Stark.”

Dr. Cho then got Peter’s attention. “Peter, can you please tell me what color you would like your cast to be?”

“Can I get two colors?”

“Of course you can.”

“Great. I’ll get blue and red then.”

“Let me go grab the supplies. I’ll be back in a few.” Dr. Cho left the room.

Tony handed the phone back to Peter. “For a second there, I thought you were going to choose red and gold since I’m your favorite Avenger.”

“Actually, Bruce is my favorite,” Peter deadpanned.

“After everything I do…” Tony sighed dramatically. “So, you obviously picked your own colors--”

“‘Cause I’m my own superhero!”

“That is technically true.”

“Plus, I wanted you to draw spiderwebs all over it in permanent marker so it matches my suit.”

The bantering stopped as Dr. Cho came back into the room. Tony moved out of Dr. Cho’s way, leaning against the wall. She was carrying a tray with some rolls of what looked like colored bandages, scissors, a bowl of water, and an alcohol wipe. She set them down on the bed next to Peter, then gestured for his arm. “So, the first thing I’m going to do is wipe down your arm so that it is as clean as possible before I put the cast on.”

After wiping down his arm, she places the red and blue bandages into the water, and picks up the white roll before winding it around his arm. “This protects your skin from the abrasiveness of the cast. While this is technically waterproof, I still suggest keeping water away from it as much as possible.” Once she reached his hand, she picked up the scissors and cut it around his thumb.

Taking the red and blue bandages out of the water, she unrolls a bit of each of them before she starts wrapping them around his arm. “This should start to set in a few minutes and be completely set within the next 15-30 minutes. You can leave after that.” With another snip of her scissors, the cast is done on Peter’s arm. “Let me get this out of the way and bring you a sling, and a fabric tube.” At Peter’s quizzical look, she clarified, “You put it over your cast when you go to sleep so you don’t scratch yourself in the middle of the night.” Dr. Cho left the room.

“My arm feels weird.”

Tony walked over and stood next to Peter. “Weird because of the pain medication, or...?”

“Nah, not like that. It feels heavier, yet lighter at the same time. I don’t really know how to describe it. I know that my arm is heavier because of the cast. But my arm itself almost feels like it’s floating. I don’t know.”

Dr. Cho reentered the room. “Here is your sling. Please don’t put it on for another half hour.” Turning to Tony, she handed him a bottle of pills. “And here is some pain medication. He can take it every six hours. I hope you both have a wonderful rest of your day.”

“Thanks, Helen.”

“Thanks Dr. Cho.”

Once Dr. Cho left, Tony sat down on the bed next to Peter. “So kid, care to elaborate on how you broke your arm?”

“Not really,” he replied sullenly.

“Well, we have another 25 minutes before we can blow this popsicle stand, and I, for one, would rather hear how you broke your arm instead of sitting in more awkward silence.”

“If I tell you, will you promise not to any anyone else?”

Tony held out his pinky. “I pinky swear. You kids still do that, right?”

“Yes, we do.” Peter smiled and linked his pinky with Tony’s. “FRIDAY, you have audio of this conversation, correct?”

“Of course, Peter.”

“Great, so if you hear Mr. Stark break his promise, feel free to use the ‘You know I had to do it to em’ protocol that I was telling you about earlier.”

Tony looked gobsmacked. “What is in this protocol, FRIDAY?”

“I’m sorry sir, but you don’t have access to that knowledge.”

Peter looked sheepish. “All you need to know is that it is designed to have the maximum amount of annoyance for both you and the rest of the Avengers. Although, now that I’m thinking about it, Mr. Clint and Ms. Nat would probably find it hilarious.”

“And here I thought you were all kittens and rainbows, with not one bad bone in your body.”

“Technically, my right ulna is a ‘bad bone’ since it’s broken.”

“That was so bad.” Tony chuckled before turning serious again. “Okay, Peter. It’s time to stop deflecting and tell me how you broke your arm. While you were getting your x-ray, I looked into Karen, and she told me that you didn’t go out as Spiderman yesterday.”

“Yeah. May and I went to her department picnic since it was the last time we were going to see each other for two weeks. After we came home, we had a movie night.”

“That’s nice, but it still doesn’t explain how you broke your arm.”

“So, there are two distinct possibilities as to when I might have broken it.”

Tony was taken aback. “What do you mean two possibilities?”

“It just be like that sometimes.”

“Huh?”

“Nevermind. The first one occurred right before the picnic, and the other during the picnic.”

“Let’s start from just before the first possibility.”

“Fine. So May had me putting together the tote bag for the picnic while she finished her brownies. She was really proud of them because they weren’t too burnt, making them half edible. After she finished plating the brownies and wrapping them, she had me take everything into the car while she went to the bathroom. 

“I was walking down the sidewalk towards the car. I was distracted, thinking about everything we were going to do in the next two weeks. I didn’t notice my spidey sense going off until it was too late.” Here, Peter hesitated.

“Come on, Bambi. I swear I won’t judge. Did you get run over by a bike?”

Peter looked down at his hands and muttered, “No. This is much more embarrassing.” Then, all at once, he said, “Itrippedonanunevenportionofthesidewalk.”

“Bud, can you say that a little slower for me? I have no idea what you just said.”

“I tripped on an uneven portion of the sidewalk.”

Tony struggled to hide an exasperated grin before giving Peter a sympathetic look. He was about to reassure his mentee, but Peter continued. “I mean, I’m Spiderman. I swing around and do cool flips while back talking baddies. A sidewalk shouldn’t get the best of me.”

“Peter, Spiderman or not, everybody trips sometimes. Even Natasha, and she’s a superspy.”

“Yeah, but they don’t break their arm doing it,” Peter grumbles. “Anyways, May was so proud of her slightly burnt brownies, so I knew I had to save them at all costs. Since they were in my left hand and I refused to let go of them, I ended up catching myself with my right hand.

“I knew something was wrong, since my wrist was radiating pain through my entire arm. I figured that I only sprained it though. I’ve done that before, and knew that it would heal by itself within a few days. I then walked to the car and started it so the AC was on when May got in. We drove to the picnic and I didn’t mention tripping on the sidewalk, because I didn’t want May to tease me.”

“Peter, if you told her you thought you sprained your wrist, she would not be teasing you. Your well-being takes priority over her teasing you.”

“I know, but I didn’t want her to worry. I wanted her to enjoy a carefree afternoon.”

“Again, Peter, you need to take care of yourself sometimes.” Tony gestured for him to continue the story.

“Once we arrived, May had me find somewhere in the shade to set up our blanket while she dropped the brownies off at the food table. After everything was set up, she made me drink a bunch of water so that I would stay hydrated, and put on sunscreen so I wouldn’t burn.”

“Because she cares about your wellbeing.”

“She wouldn’t let me leave until she was sure it sunk into my skin,” Peter complained.

“She’s looking out for you, since you obviously won’t look after yourself.” Tony gestured to Peter’s cast.

“It was 30 minutes. It felt like forever.”

“Farther proof that she cares about you. Now, back to the story, kid.”

“After she was sure that the UV rays wouldn’t penetrate my skin, she sent me off to find some people my own age. I wandered around for a bit before I found a tree stump to sit on. After scrolling through Twitter for a bit, I decided that enough time had passed so I searched for May. I found her bragging to some of her coworkers about the Academic Decathlon team. I thankfully missed out on the more embarrassing stuff. 

“After a few more minutes of chit chat, May excused us so we could get some food. I stuck with finger foods, as there was no way I was going to attempt to use a fork with my wrist hurting so much. We ate lunch on the quilt, and May insisted that I put more sunscreen on and drink a bottle of water before she pointed me in the direction of some teenagers kicking around a soccer ball. Before I could go, she handed me another water bottle and made me promise that it would be empty the next time I saw her. 

“I go over to the circle and ask if I could join, and one of the guys, Sean, gave me a spot. They all introduced themselves and we kicked around the soccer ball for a bit before another boy, Carlos, came up with a different idea. Since there were six of us, we decided to play a 3v3 game. We used paper plates and water bottles to mark out the field and the goals. 

“It was Carlos, Mikey, and me against Sean, Jason, and Aaron. Both teams were evenly matched, and I could tell that Sean and Carlos definitely play on a school or club team. Carlos was able to score first, giving us a lead. That fueled Sean to go even more all out. Sean ended up scoring, making it a tied game. 

“After this second goal, it was unsaid, but whichever team scored the third goal would win. Mikey and I were passing the ball up field when Sean side tackled me from the left. Once again, I landed on my right arm.

“It hurt a lot more than when I fell on it earlier that day. Once I got the pain under control, I heard Carlos and Sean arguing about the fairness of the goal, and Sean apologized to me.”

Tiny butted in. “I hope he asked if you were okay?”

“He didn’t but Carlos did after he noticed my grimace. I told that I hit my hip pretty hard, but I’d be okay.

“My arm was throbbing so I decided to head back to the blanket. May was socializing with her friends again, so she couldn’t tell that I was in a lot of pain. When I got there, I laid down on it and closed my eyes, willing my arm to stop hurting so much. I must have dozed off, because next thing I knew, May is shaking my shoulder. I sat up really fast, and the pain returned tenfold as much as before. May thought I was having a nightmare, and I didn’t correct her. We then packed up and went home.”

Tony put his hand up in a ‘stop’ gesture. “You didn’t tell May at all last night about your suspicions with your arm?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t want her to worry about me--”

“We have been over this, Peter. May is going to worry about you no matter what because she loves you and cares for you, just like you worry, love, and care about her.”

He continued as if Tony hadn’t interrupted. “And I thought that it would heal enough that I wouldn’t have to mention it.”

“So you lied about being hurt.”

“But I didn’t lie to either of you.”

Tony’s frustrations bleed into his voice. “You omitted that you thought you broke your arm to both of us by not mentioning it. That’s lying by omission. And then you directly lied to me when I asked if you were okay earlier.” Seeing that Peter was beginning to curl into himself, Tony took a deep breath to calm himself down. 

In a much softer tone than before, Tony continued. “Do you understand why I am a bit irate with you right now? Look at it from my point of view. I gave you a suit so that you could be safer. As Spiderman, I’m notified when you get injured, and I can check your footage and vitals to make sure you are doing okay. But Peter, you don’t wear the suit 24/7, which means that I need you to be honest with the adults in your life when you get hurt as Peter Parker. I don’t know what I would do if you received an injury and something even worse happened because you hid it from us.”

Peter unfurled from his ball and locked eyes with Tony. It looked like he was trying not to cry. “You really mean it, Mr. Stark?”

“I wouldn’t be saying it if it wasn’t true, Kiddo.” Tony ruffled his hair. “Come here, let me give you a hug.” Peter gently wrapped his arms around Tony, resting his head on his shoulder. “I’m not saying these things to guilt you. I just want you to realize that what I’m saying is true. You mean the world to both May and me, so please don’t hide these things from us again.”

“I won’t do it again, I promise. Thanks, Mr. Stark.”

“Anytime, kid.” They broke out of their hug. “Okay, that’s enough deep talk for one day. I think your cast has completely hardened by now, so let’s get your sling on and bust outta here.” 

Tony helped Peter into his sling, and they set off towards the elevator. “Are you hungry, squirt, because I am. Hmm… What should we have for lunch? Spaghetti? Soup?”

“Mr. Stark, you just want to see me embarrass myself trying to eat messy things with my non dominant hand,” Peter complained.

“You got me.” They walked into the elevator and took it up to the main floor. 

“Okay, what about sandwiches? You can eat them one handed.” Before Peter could respond, Tony added, “Or we can have ice cream?”

“Ice cream, definitely.”

“On one condition.”

Peter groaned.

“You tell Aunt Hottie how you broke your arm. On speakerphone.”

“Fine.”

The doors to the elevator opened. Tony made a beeline for the freezer. “Great! What flavor of ice cream do you want?”


	2. The Previous Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A more in-depth look as to how Peter broke his arm.
> 
> Thanks for reading this chapter; you didn't have to!

Peter was excited. Finals were finished, meaning he had three months of almost-limitless Spidermanning ahead. It was warm this weekend, and May was off so that the two of them could attend her department picnic. Normally May wouldn’t ask Peter to attend with her, but they hadn’t seen much of each other due to her work schedule and his frantic studying for finals. Plus, after this weekend, Peter was spending two weeks upstate with Tony to work on his suit, train, and blow a few things up (all in the name of science). 

“Did you put the sunscreen in the bag?” May yelled from the kitchen. She was cutting up a pan of slightly burnt brownies to take to the potluck picnic.

Peter, who was digging around the hall linen closet stood up and exclaimed, “I found it! Anything else you need from this black hole?”

“Aloe Vera?”

“May, we have sunscreen to prevent the need for the aloe.” Peter placed the bottle in the tote bag on the table.

“Okay, okay. Let me just plate these brownies and wrap them up. Then we can go.” He sat on the couch waiting for May. Once she wrapped the plate in foil, she called Peter, “Will you take everything to the car? Start up the AC while I grab my purse.”

“Of course, May.”

May wrapped him in a hug. “Your the best! I can’t wait to brag about you!”

“May!” 

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Not really. I’ll let you cool off the car for me now.”

Peter walked down and out of the apartment building on autopilot, thinking of how much May could possibly embarrass him in three hours, along with what things Mr. Stark and him would be working on. Due to his daydreaming, his spidey sense went off too late to stop him from tripping over the uneven sidewalk. The brownies had to survive impact since they were actually mostly edible for once; he quickly shifted the brownies into his left hand, and braced himself with his right arm. 

The impact jolted through Peter’s arm. But the brownies were safe in his other hand, and nothing fell out of the tote. Quickly pushing himself up to his knees, he felt a sharp pain radiating up his arm from his wrist. Peter shrugged it off. He dealt with sprained wrists before. It would be fine in a few days. 

Glancing around, no one seemed to notice his wipeout. Making his way to the car, he unlocked it and got in, placing the bag and brownies on the floor of the passenger seat before turning the car and AC on. The radio blared to life to May’s favorite 80s rock station. Normally, Peter would turn the volume down due to his sensitive hearing, but today he left it up. The music helped him ignore the throbbing in his wrist. He didn’t remember his other sprains hurting as much. Then again, he was usually on patrol when he suspected that he might have sprained something. The adrenaline dulled the pain long enough that his healing factor had time to kick in and fix what was wrong.

May slid into the driver’s seat. Buckling up, she turned to Peter, “Ready to have some fun?”

“Of course!” He returned the smile.

The drive to the park didn’t take that long, singing Van Halen and Journey at the top of their lungs. Miraculously, May found a parking spot only half a block from the park’s entrance. “You have your spidey sense, and my sense is knowing where empty parking spaces are,” she joked as she parallel parked. “Okay. I’ll take the brownies, and you can carry the tote bag.”

Peter unbuckled himself and wordlessly handed the plate over to May. On the drive over, his wrist went from a sharp throbbing to a dull pulse. When he pushed his door open, the throbbing began in earnest once again. Peter hid his grimace by bending down and picking up the tote. “Lead the way, May.”

Peter dutifully followed May into the park and towards a grassy area where multiple tables were set up and blankets littered the ground. “Honey, you can find a nice spot in the shade for us while I take these over there.” She gestured towards the tables.

He found what he thought was a good spot, and set the bag down. He was about to grab the quilt before remembering that he probably shouldn’t be waving his right arm around, lest it starts to hurt even more. But the quilt was too big to try to shake out one-handed. Peter decided to wait for May to come over and have her help him.

A few minutes later, May finished her small talk at the food table and found Peter in the shade. “Why haven’t you set up the blanket yet?”

“Oh, um, I wanted to make sure that you liked the area.”

May ruffled his hair. “Peter, honestly all I care about is that it is in the shade. The UV’s high today, and I don’t want either of us to get sunburned.” She rummaged through the tote. “Let’s get this blanket laid out.”

She went to go shake it out, but Peter stopped her. “Wait! It might be easier if we unfold it instead of shaking it out. It’ll get less dirt on it this way.” And it won’t jostle my arm as much.

May stared at him so long that he worried that she would call him out or ask him what was wrong. Instead, she nodded. “That’s a good idea, but I’ll still need to wash this when we get home.”

After they were settled on top of the quilt, May forced Peter to drink half a water bottle (you need to stay hydrated) and made sure he lathered on the sunscreen (I don’t want to hear it. I know about your healing factor, but I’d rather it not be used for something you could have easily prevented.). Only after he waited the required 30 minutes for it to completely absorb into his skin did May let him leave the blanket. “Go have fun now and make some new friends! I’m going to talk with Lydia over there.”

Peter did not see anyone who looked both near his age and approachable. Plus, he did not want to move his arm that much. So, he wandered around the picnic pretending to be looking for someone so he did not have to talk to anyone. After about 15 minutes, he gave up, deciding to sit on a tree stump. He was about to text Ned about how boring the picnic was, before remembering that Ned was taking his little cousin out to see the latest Disney movie. He stood up and sighed, stretching before searching for May across the lawn. 

The area was definitely more crowded than it was only a half hour before. Making his way slowly through the throngs of people, he eventually found May speaking with three of her coworkers. As he got closer, he saw May wave him over. She wrapped an arm around his shoulder and pulled him close. “And here is my nephew, Peter.”

“Um, hi. It’s nice to meet all of you.” Peter waved at the rest of the group and tried to keep the pain off his face when the radiating ache shot up his arm again.

“I was just telling them how your Academic Decathlon team won Nationals this past year.”

“Uh, yeah, it was in D.C. last year. Our team captain gave us packets to do over the summer, and scheduled twice monthly team meetings to make sure that we will win this year too.”

“Oh wow,” the one he thought was Lydia began, “he sounds like a strict captain.”

Peter could already hear MJ’s response to maybe-Lydia assuming that the Decathlon caption was male. “Well, she can be a bit scary until you get to know her, but it’s kind of how she keeps us in line. She’s doing a pretty good job, seeing as our previous captain, uh, Liz, had to… suddenly move to Oregon during the middle of the year.”

“Well, it was nice catching up with you all outside of work, but I’m feeling hungry, which means that this teenager is probably starving. We’ll see you later.” With her hand still on his shoulder, May steered him towards the food table. As they were picking up plates, napkins, and utensils, May whispered so that only Peter would hear, “Do not take any cold salad that has mayonnaise in it. It’s hot out and I don’t want you to get food poisoning.”

“Don’t worry, May. I was planning on getting my servings of fresh fruits and vegetables.” With his wrist still acting up, Peter decided that he would only eat finger foods, that way he could keep his plate on the ground and eat one-handed without worrying about spilling any food onto himself. 

After grabbing his food, he joined May back on their quilt in the shade. “I think that’s the most fruits and vegetables I’ve seen on your plate in years,” May joked.

“Well, summer’s all about fresh starts, so I figured I should eat some fresh carrots to go along with that theme.” 

They talked about mundane things as they ate their lunch. Peter kept his plate balanced on his left knee, and hoped that May did not notice that he was mostly using his left hand. If she did, she did not mention it. Peter thought that his cover was blown when he went to stand up and May stopped him. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“To the trash can. To throw our stuff away.”

“Sit back down.” This was it, May was going to ask about his arm. “You need to reapply your sunscreen before you get out of the shade again.”

“But May, it hasn’t even been two hours yet.”

“You’ve been sweating. That makes it less effective. Besides, by the time this soaks completely into your skin, two hours will have passed since you last applied sunscreen.”

“Fine, May.” Once again, Peter sprayed on the sunscreen. May made him wait with her for 15 minutes before she let him take their garbage to the nearest trash can.

He planned on sitting with May for another 15 minutes while the sunscreen permeated into his skin, but May stopped him before he could sit down. “Look over there, Peter.” She pointed to a group of five or six boys kicking a soccer ball around. “Why don’t you join them? They look to be about your age, and you do like soccer, as much as you try to deny it.”

Peter did not want to spend another 15 minutes in the shade. “Sounds like fun!”

Before he could step off the quilt, May stopped him once again. “Hey, take this with you.” She handed him another water bottle. “You need--”

“--to stay hydrated. I promise I will drink all of this. You can go back to Lydia and the others.” 

He took the bottle of water and made his way over to the group of boys. The five of them were in a loose circle, passing the ball to one another. Peter hesitated near the outer edge of the circle. “Hi, I was wondering if I could join you guys.”

“Sure,” replied a guy in a Red Sox baseball cap. “I’m Sean, and clockwise from me is Carlos, Aaron, Mikey, and Jason.”

Mikey and Jason scooted over to make room for Peter in the circle. “Hello, everyone. I’m Peter.”

Peter fell into the rhythm pretty quickly, and occasionally added to the boys’ banter. After passing the ball around for about 20 min, it was beginning to get boring. Just when Peter was planning on leaving due to a fake text from May, Carlos came up with a better idea.

Carlos stopped the ball when it was kicked to him. “Guys, there’s six of us. We can play a 3v3 game. How does that sound?”

Everyone nodded their heads in agreement. Peter stubley checked the range of motion in his hand and arm. The food must have helped his healing power speed up, as it hardly hurt. Soon, they had a rough outline of the field and goals mapped out via water bottles and paper plates. It was Carlos, Mikey, and Peter vs Sean, Aaron, and Jason. 

Carlos and Sean were both equally matched, and were pitted up against each other as opposing forwards. Peter was playing a defender-midfielder hybrid, and Mikey was a forward that would sometimes drop back to assist Peter. Things were going quite smoothly until Carlos scored a goal.

With his team now losing, Sean ramped up his game. How he was currently playing made how he previously played look like child’s play. Carlos matched him though, and the battle was on. Within 10 minutes, Sean was able to score due to a pass from Jason right before he would be offsides. With the scored tied 1-1, there was an unspoken agreement that the next goal would determine the winner. 

Aaron managed to steal the ball from Mikey, and that’s when everything began to go wrong. Aaron quickly passed the ball to Sean, who was having a breakaway towards the goal. Peter barely managed to take possession of the ball away from Sean, and quickly passed it to Mikey, who was making his way upfield. Mikey passed it back to Peter, and his spidey sense barely registered before he was side tackled from the left by Sean. Peter landed hard on the ground, and searing pain returned to his arm even worse than before. As he picked himself off of the ground, he heard cheering. Sean had scored. 

He could feel his bone throb in beat with his heart. He made his way over to the rest of the group. Carlos was having a heated argument with Sean. “Dude, you cheated. You know that slide tackling, or any tackling at all, is illegal.”

“Well, you didn’t specify it at the beginning.”

“Yeah, because I said that we would play like last time. Last time we took out tackling.”

“Whatever, you’re just a sore loser.” Sean turned to Peter. “Are you good, man? I hit you pretty hard, and I’m sorry. I tend to get really competitive.”

“Uh, no, I’m all good.” 

Sean slapped an arm around Peter’s right shoulder, increasing the pain level by at least a two. “Maybe I’ll see you around.” Sean walked away with the ball.

Carlos came up next. “Are you sure you’re okay? It looks like you are trying to hide a grimace on your face.”

“Yeah, I landed pretty hard on my hip. I think it’s going to bruise.”

“You were pretty great for someone who never played soccer on a team before. Have you ever thought about joining your school’s team?”

“I don’t think we have one.”

“That’s a shame. It was nice meeting you, Peter.” Carlos waved.

“You too.” His wrist hurt even more than it did during the original fall. He made his way over to the quilt and gingerly sat down before laying down. He was grateful that May was busy socializing so she would not notice he was in pain. He threw his left arm over his eyes, and attempted to doze off.

Apparently, he was able to take a little nap; the next thing he knew, May was shaking his right shoulder. Peter gasped and sat up at the shooting agony the was his right arm. “I am so sorry, Peter! I didn’t mean to scare you. You didn’t wake up when I first called your name. Are you okay?”

“Y-yeah. I-I think it was a beginning of a nightmare.” Peter lied as he struggled to get his breathing under control. “Thanks for waking me up before it got too bad.”

“Anytime, honey. Help me fold up this quilt, and then we’ll head home, okay?”

“Okay.” Peter helped May fold it before heading back to the car, sans brownies. “Did people eat your brownies?” He asked as he got into the car. 

“I don’t know if they ate them, but all of them were gone.” May turned on the car and drove back to the apartment. There was still the slight smell of burnt chocolate in the main area, but it disappeared as Peter made his way to his room. 

Peter sat down at his desk, turning on the light. Based on how his arm throbbed, he was pretty sure that he broke it. As he prodded his arm, the pain intensified wherever he touched it. And looking at it under the lamp, he could tell that his arm was swollen, but surprisingly not bruised. 

May knocked on his door and he pretended to be looking for something before she opened it. “Hey sweetie, I just wanted to let you know that we’re having leftovers for dinner. What are you looking for?”

“I drew another web shooter design and wanted to bring it to Mr. Stark tomorrow.”

“That sounds like fun. Why don’t you take a shower and then watch a movie with me while we eat dinner.”

Half an hour later, Peter and May sat on the couch eating leftover Pad Thai and spaghetti respectively. They were watching a romcom that May had picked out, and Peter could not follow who wanted to date who. After movie finished, May put on The Empire Strikes Back, Peter’s favorite Star Wars movie. As the sun set, May ran her hand through Peter’s hair, and he fell asleep quickly. 

He woke up to May shifting on the couch. The credits were rolling. “I was going to let you sleep on the couch, but since you’re up you can sleep in your bed. It must have been an intense game of soccer if you fell asleep so early.”

“Yeah, it was.” That technically wasn’t a lie, but it was not the entire truth. His arm still hurt, but the pain was softened by sleep and the pain pills he took earlier. 

They both stood up from the couch. “I have to go in early tomorrow, so I’ll see you in two weeks. Make sure you call me at least once a day, or else.” May gave him a long hug and a kiss before waving him to bed. 

Peter’s hand was jostled as he gave May a hug, and it aggravated the broken bone, taking any sleepiness he felt. Not wanting to leave the blanket in a bundle on the couch, he took it into his room and dropped it on the floor to deal with later. 

Lying on his bed, he was thankful that he was already packed, as it would be difficult to do one-handed. Sleep did not come easy for him, but he eventually fell asleep watching Spider-Man YouTube compilations that Ned had recommended to him.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!
> 
> How I broke my arm the first time:
> 
> My dad had a company picnic that we were attending. We were told that there was a pool, so my brother and I grabbed our swimsuits and towels before racing each other to the car. I tripped over my towel in the driveway and landed hard. We stopped at my Grandma's house (she was a doctor and lived two streets away) so she could look at it. She thought that it was a bad sprain and wrapped it up for me.
> 
> We arrived at the picnic and my arm is hurting less. My brother and I see that there are inflatables and our parents let us go on them. I wanted to do an obstacle course one, but the operator wouldn't let me on with me bandaged wrist. So, I ditched the wrap and came back. The person let me do the obstacle course and I ended up falling pretty hard onto the ground at the end.
> 
> After the picnic, my parents took me to get my arm x-rayed. At first, they couldn't find a break, so they sent me home and told me to ice it. Two days later, someone reviewed the x-rays and determined that I did fracture my arm. I went back to the doctor's office and got a cast.


End file.
